1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector with a terminal locking means which is mounted from a circumferential wall of the connector housing in a direction perpendicular to a terminal accommodating chamber.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In FIG. 9, designated A is a male connector housing, B a terminal locking means, and C a female terminal. The male connector housing A and the terminal locking means B are made of a synthetic resin insulating material.
The connector housing A has a plurality of horizontally arranged terminal accommodating chambers 1 formed therein. An upper circumferential exterior wall A.sub.1 is provided with a locking arm 2 that engages with a female connector housing not shown. One of side circumferential walls A.sub.2 is formed with an opening 3 at the middle portion thereof, as shown in FIG. 10 to 12, and is also formed with a hollow portion 4 that communicates with the opening 3 and passes through the terminal accommodating chambers 1. That is, the hollow portion 4 is formed as a small opening that pierces through the upper and lower portion of each partition wall 1a formed between the terminal accommodating chambers 1.
The terminal locking means B, in the example case shown, is shaped like a letter U in cross section. It consists of a cover portion 6 that covers the opening 3 in the side circumferential wall A.sub.2 and a pair of facing wall pieces 7, 7 provided to the cover portions that are inserted into the small openings or hollow portions 4. The wall pieces 7, 7 have a plurality of terminal locking portions 8 formed at their facing surfaces that engage with locking pieces 15 (described later) of the female terminals C. The wall piece 7 has a preliminary locking projection 9 formed at its free end on the rear side, and the cover portion 6 has final locking projections 10 formed at the upper and lower ends on both front and rear sides.
In the connector housing A is provided a preliminary engagement portion 11 that engages with the preliminary locking projection 9 of the terminal locking means B, as shown in FIG. 12. The inner edge of the opening 3 is formed with a final engagement portion 12 that engages with the final locking projection 10, as shown in FIG. 11.
The preliminary engagement portion 11 engages with the preliminary locking projection 9 to temporarily stop the terminal locking means B when the terminal locking means B is inserted into the connector housing A through the hollow portions 4. As shown in FIG. 13, the preliminary engagement portion 11 stops the terminal locking means B in such a way that the terminal locking portions 8 are held outside the terminal accommodating chambers 1 to allow insertion and drawing out of the female terminals C. The terminal locking means 8 at this stage is in a preliminary lock position.
The final engagement portion 12 engages with the final locking projection 10 to firmly lock the terminal locking means B when the terminal locking means B is further inserted into the connector housing A from the preliminary lock position. When the terminal locking means B is locked by the final engagement portion 12, i.e., when it is in a final lock position, the terminal locking portions 8 engage with the locking pieces 15 of the female terminals C, preventing the backward slip-off of the terminals.
With the terminal locking means B at the preliminary lock position, because the terminal locking portions 8 of the wall pieces 7, 7 are outside the terminal accommodating chambers 1, the female terminals C can be inserted or withdrawn from the rear side of the connector housing A.
When at this preliminary lock position the female terminal C is inserted into the terminal accommodating chamber 1, a resilient locking arm 5 inside the terminal accommodating chamber 1 engages in a locking hole 14 in a base portion 13 of an electric contact portion C.sub.1 of the terminal C, as shown in FIG. 6, effecting a preliminary locking of the terminal.
In this state, when the terminal locking means B is further moved to the final lock position, the terminal locking portions 8, 8 of the wall pieces 7, 7 located on the upper and lower sides of the female terminal C are situated behind the locking piece 15 of the electric contact portion C.sub.1 to engage it, thus effecting a double locking of the female terminal C.
In the above-mentioned construction, the wall pieces 7 of the terminal locking means B are made of relatively thin elongate plates and thus tend to warp upwardly or downwardly. As shown by the two-dot line in FIG. 10, the wall pieces 7 easily deflect particularly inwardly and, at the preliminary lock position of the terminal locking means B in FIG. 13, the free ends of the wall pieces 7 deflect into the terminal accommodating chamber 1 at the inmost part of the chamber.
Considering such warping of the wall piece 7 in facilitating its easy insertion into the connector housing A, the dimension of the hollow portion 4 is set sufficiently larger than the thickness of the wall piece 7 and the terminal locking portion 8 so that small gaps a and b remain on both sides when the wall piece 7 is not warped, as shown in FIG. 14.
When the wall pieces 7 warp inwardly as shown in FIG. 13 and 15, the wall pieces 7 deflect toward the interior of the chamber by the amount of gap a+b=c that exists between the wall piece 7 and the hollow portion 4 (or terminal accommodating chamber 1), blocking the insertion of the female terminal C. The deflection of this magnitude, however, is easily undone by the insertion pressure of the female terminal C, which expands the wall pieces 7 outwardly as shown by the arrow, assisted by the chamfered portion 7a at the end of the wall pieces 7a and the gap c.
When, however, the female terminal C is inserted slantwise, a stepped portion 16 is formed in the hollow portion 4 between the wall piece 7 and the inner wall 1b of the terminal accommodating chamber. The front end of the electric contact portion C.sub.1 of the female terminal C abuts against the stepped portion 16, blocking the insertion of the terminal. This may result in the terminal or connector housing being damaged.
When there is no warping in the wall pieces 7, the terminal locking means B has a play because of the gap c, causing uneasy noise.